T-Mobile and Sprint are merging

[Xist]

Dependent on the Republic of California:
CNBC

[redpoint5]

Would the company be called Sprint, or T-mobile?

I expect they will have the best network after the merger, especially if their phones can do voice over the low frequency Nextel bands. I remember being surprised to get a push to talk call on my Nextel while out in the middle of nowhere Peru 10 years ago.

[Xist]

Probably T-Mobile, since they are bigger, and Sprint will only get smaller.

They also mentioned Dish Network trying to start their own cell phone service and a U.S. district judge ruled that Sprint might go bankrupt otherwise. Also:

T-Mobile and Sprint agreed to certain concessions to the government before the agencies cleared the deal. The companies told the FCC they would deploy a 5G network covering 97% of the U.S. population within three years of closing the deal. Sprint also agreed to sell Boost Mobile, Virgin Mobile and other prepaid phone businesses, as well as some of its wireless spectrum to Dish for $5 billion before gaining approval from the Justice Department.

So, T-Mobile would eat Sprint, but Dish Network would create its own cell phone provider.
Do you think they will buy the old Sprint stores?

[redpoint5]

Dish should go away and be replaced by the Tesla low orbit mesh providing 1 data connection for all household data needs.

I don't care about 5G, and I doubt many others do either. That said, I'm just about always wrong about these things. What, do people need to stream 8k video on their 6" cell phone screens?

[Xist]

People always want more. Maybe it is my phone, but there are a number of dead spots near my clients (like fifteen miles around any reservation), and I do not always have a great signal in-town. I would rather they filled in gaps before they let me use my phone to stream 4k video for my 43" television.

[JSH]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

That assumes they take greater market share away from their competitors, in which case, they didn't create jobs, they just shifted workers from other companies over to their own.

I'm not sure where this is going. Sprint uses the CDMA protocol and T-Mobile uses GSM. Sprint had previously bought Nextel and the lower bandwidth frequencies they owned. I would guess they will own the broadest spectrum of the radio frequencies with this move, and compatible phones would be international roaming capable due to GSM.

I wonder if Google Project Fi was an early sign of the merger considering the collaboration between Sprint / T-Mobile and Google? Nexus phones have had the capability to connect to either network for years.

The CDMA / GSM distinction went away with LTE which uses a new protocol. Mobile providers are quickly killing off old 2G / 3G networks so they can reuse the spectrum for LTE and 5G

• Verizon completely killed their 2G / 3G CDMA network at the end of 2019
• AT&T killed their 2G network at the end of 2016 and will kill 3G at the end of 2021
• T-Mobile started sunsetting 2G and 3G in 2016 and says 90% of their traffic is LTE today.
• No word on Sprint but I suspect their CDMA will be going away with the merger with T-Mobile.

As I understand it Google Fi is mostly WIFI calling and voice over LTE. I've had good luck with Fi internationally but have never used it in the USA.

Here I have a company provided phone with a global AT&T plan. My wife is on AT&T prepaid paying $25 a month for unlimited talk and text + 8G of data that works in the US, Canada and Mexico. (Paid a year at a time to get that price) Before that we were on Cricket for quite awhile and a whole bunch of MVNOs.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by JSH

The CDMA / GSM distinction went away with LTE which uses a new protocol. Mobile providers are quickly killing off old 2G / 3G networks so they can reuse the spectrum for LTE and 5G

There's a lot of confusion with cellular terminology. CDMA is a technique (code division) to allow multiple users to share the same frequency, whereas GSM is a protocol, and utilizes a different technique, TDMA (time division) to share the same frequency.

4G is a benchmark throughput (1 gbps stationary). It doesn't define a protocol or frequency sharing technique as far as I can tell. There's no definition I can find of what method of multiple access it must use. CDMA still might be used to achieve 4G

5G seems ambiguous except that it can include shorter wavelength frequencies and potential for higher bandwidth. I don't see any benchmarks to qualify something as 5G.

[JSH]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

There's a lot of confusion with cellular terminology. CDMA is a technique (code division) to allow multiple users to share the same frequency, whereas GSM is a protocol, and utilizes a different technique, TDMA (time division) to share the same frequency.

4G is a benchmark throughput (1 gbps stationary). It doesn't define a protocol or frequency sharing technique as far as I can tell. There's no definition I can find of what method of multiple access it must use. CDMA still might be used to achieve 4G

5G seems ambiguous except that it can include shorter wavelength frequencies and potential for higher bandwidth. I don't see any benchmarks to qualify something as 5G.

For LTE if your phone has the correct band it will work on the network as long as you have service. When LTE first came out carriers used it for data and legacy 2G / 3G CDMA and GSM networks for voice. With Voice over LTE technology those old networks are no longer required.


Here is a good summary: https://www.whistleout.com/CellPhone...cies-explained

From that: "In terms of their relevance to 3G and 4G LTE bands and frequencies, the thing to know is that CDMA and GSM only use 3G technology. So the CDMA vs. GSM discussion is really a 3G discussion."


I was incorrect on Verizon's sunset date. They had said since 2016 that they were shutting down CDMA at the end of 2019. They seem to have changed their mind and are allowing current customers a longer grace period but stopped activating new CDMA phones in 2018 but will keep the CDMA alive until the end of 2020 for retail customers. Enterprise customers get a longer grace period and Verizon will serve them until December 2022

https://www.lightreading.com/mobile/.../d/d-id/753147
https://dmp.com/2019/5/22/Key_Dates_...twork_Shutdown